Rapha 500

Its done for yet another year, once again cracked it out in just 5 sweet days on the bike taking on Exmoor and Dartmoor on my many loops. Great fun and a good way to end the year.

Rapha 500

Its that time of year again!! The Rapha 500 event on Strava! Lots of wind and rain.. think i have been here before..

Last year 

Through Our Eyes: Dan Treadway's 100-Foot Snowmobile Jump in the Whistle...

wild!!

Rocky Mountain 2014

 Couple quick pics of my 2014 rocky mountain team bike, that's right, its a tweener wheeled 650b and from the quick car park test it feels sweet. full bike spec and more photos coming soon.

TRAIL HEAD TRIPLE CROWN..TAKE 2

The second year and another great time on the bike with Wayne and Stuart as we put in some hard riding and a great way to end the summer hitting up three trail spots in one day.

Porlock hill climb

4 miles and all up hill! turned out to be the same grade all the way so very much like a flat TT, good event and good vibe, another event i will do again.

Barnstaple crit road race

Down town in Barnstaple on a Friday night, under floodlights and racing past the bars and clubs, such a fun event, will be back again next year. good times

Elbry stays with 66sick for 2014

Im very happy to report i will again be supported by 66Sick again in 2014.

bike park wales photo blog

bike park wales, run 2

Trail Head do AFAN

bike park wales

BIKE PARK WALES

We hit up Bike Park Wales this weekend and had a real blast, Great for trail bikes with not so over tech trails with some great fast flowing trails, We went for the pedal up to get a winter workout even if it did take sting out the legs on the DH sections [couple top 25 strava times], Well worth a visit and we can not wait to get back in the new year.

Bell Oregon Super D and the Bell sequence

This has become my go to lid for trail riding, Thanks to its great fit and feel.

BELL Full-9 Product Video

love this lid, the Full 9 from Bell! my lid of choice for DH and freeriding.

The Hard Road: Introducing the new Bell Gage

this is my road helmet of choice! The Gage by Bell!

Bell Segment , my lid of choice

i run this at the pump track and even on the trail.

FOREST OF DEAN ENDURO

Just a killer photo, plus i forgot, not only did i have a good time, i finished 6th.

mini enduro FOD

Last enduro of the year, lot riders came up the day before and got some track time in, track one was a fresh track and real good fun, tracks 2 + 3 were the same as last years enduro1 events and again good fun, sadly some riders felt the need to cut sections out of the track to try and get a result.. well done for cheating yourself. Still i had a blast, love riding the Rocky Mountain Blizzard and a drying track gave loads of grip on race runs over the wet morning practice, sadly i kept dropping my chain on stage one and had to pump and roll stages 2 and 3, turned out my cranks had come loose in practice to the point of almost fulling off! lol. Still i ended the day with a night ride what was a proper giggle fest, good times at the last MTB event of the year.
thanks to
Wind-wave.
Kore
GW-Designs
Rocky Mountain Bicycles
Freestylextreme
fuel

TROY LEE ACE FINGERLESS

Things moving fast at TLD and the road glove looks like it will be out in the spring in white or black!

EXMOOR BEAST CRUSHED

We took on the 100 mile Exmoor beast sportive for the first ever time and it turned in to a great day on the bike, Hard work and a real battle in the wind but we came out of the event with the third fastest 100 miler on strava for the day and some great miles banked, this weekend were off to have some fun on the Rocky Mountain Bicycle up at FOD for the last mini enduro of the year.

photos:

Troy Lee Designs hit the road bike market

Look for TROY LEE DESIGNS to make some road bike based products for 2015 year, Finger less ACE gloves and a small range of road bike clothing look to be on the cards for this ever growing market

.

Blog update coming..

Loads things have been going on, be it racing at night, racing on the road and trail riding in Wales etc.. total blog round up coming next week!

few GoPro rides

SWE  on the Rocky Mountain Bicycles Slayer
Haldon on the Rocky Mountain Bicycles Blizzard LT
Barnstaple on the Rocky Mountain Element 970 BC

Exmoor Explorer

The Exmoor Explorer has been on my to do list since i came home first in the 75k Exmoor marathon event a few years ago, This year looked to be perfect as i was in ok shape and the Rocky Mountain 970 BC Element on paper would be the perfect bike for such an event, We lined up right at the back behind 200 riders and we were soon off.. well we should of been.. We walked and chatted for the first three miles till we got a chance to get on the bike and start to pass some riders, We hit the first few DH sections and it was dropper down and some sweet lines as we cut our way through the pack and having a blast. At the first check  point the back pads were shot from all the braking behind slower riders but we cracked on the outer loop feeling strong and pushing on over the moors with just a front brake, i had a real boost when i got told that i was the only full sus that had passed this rider all day and a lot of others loving the 29er Rocky as i picked off riders ahead of me that were few and far between now i was closer to the front and fewer tyre marks in the mud as we headed for home after the last check point, never once getting passed i started to smash out some good lines on the dh sections and kept it pinned on the moorland climbs . Come the final section and we shot passed the taped trail and ended up along with some others lost and way off track.. As we rode back up and on to the track i spotted a rider i had passed some miles back and we hit the final sections flat out and making ground hitting up the jumps and railing the turns till i spotted the front tyre was feeling a little soft.. i had a slow flat thanks to a big old thorn and so backed off and rolled in 7th. 29min down on the leader and with our 30min hold up at the start showed that we had a great 3 hour 30min  ride in some of the hardest conditions that the event has been run under and the Element 970 BC was the perfect weapon.

Would i do it again.. Roll on next year and maybe some dry weather.

Fresh art from sponsor GW- DESIGNS

Stoked on how my fox lid for trail riding and enduro racing came out from the boys over at GW-Designs. 

 Above: Picking up the lid from the GW HQ.
Bellow: kit and lid ready to shred on my next Rocky Mountain Bicycle trail ride.

Big props to GW- Designs for doing such a top job and hope to rep it well for you.

BIKE CHECK

Bit slow on posting this! But thanks to the HTN boys, see you on the hills!

Blizzard bike check.

Rigs from the last few weeks..

Rocky Mountain  Element 970 BC after bikefest 2013.

 Rocky Mountain Element 970 BC after its gravity enduro

 Rocky mountain element 70 pump track bike turned in to the beach ride for a week.

 Rocky Mountain Blizzard fresh from some bmx track laps.

Rocky Mountain Slayer pre enduro.

Enduro update

The QECP GRAVITY ENDURO was a real cool event run by riders for riders. The trails were some of the best singletrack i have hit up this year and we got a few runs in before the race so did some blind and some with an idea of how long the trails were but not much time to pick lines, just foot out flat out and have a blast, As for the bike i went for the 29er Elemenet bc from my sponsors Rocky Mountain Bicycles and it paid off,  I love riding this bike and it shows how rad it is by the fact i raced to 7th in the pro class at a gravity enduro on the very same bike i got 3rd at the 12 hour xc just a month ago.. I could of done with a bit more of a all-mtn/enduro front tyre and i think we could of been on the box. But It was a great days riding and i can not wait to race the event again next year.

Exmoor gravity rally turned in to a bit of a joke event for the second year in a row, Last year the timing was a little hit and miss, this year was just plain dum, Timing was done off some £12 app on phones, im sorry when people are paying £50 timing should be a key point.. Still trails were fun and we had a good time blasting the dust trails on the Rocky Mountain Slayer. 3rd time lucky maybe for this event..

BIKE FEST race report

So bike fest would be my first paired race and my first 12 hour, what seems a little odd after almost 25 years of racing, Still i paired up with Stu Ross a former bike fest racer from a few years ago and we were both keen to put in a strong ride.

The wheels kind came off our race at the first hand over about an hour in, i waited and and waited, but i did not see Stu come in, thought he must of had a flat, But Stu then turned up from the car park, he had come in over 10 mins before but failed to spot me also.. So i set off now just about last and had to make some solid moves past slower riders and we would switch after two laps (about one hour),

It was also my first race for Rocky Mountain Bicycles and my first race on a 29er, and i loved it,

Come the end of the 12 hours we both rode hard and we ended up 3rd, less that 10 min behind second place.. what could of been.. but still on the box we were both happy. Bring on bike fest 2014!

GW-Designs

GW Designs is proud to announce that we are sponsoring Rocky Mountain Bicycles UK brand ambassador Elbry Sandland this year. Look for his first freshly painted helmet at the Exmoor enduro in just over a weeks time! Follow on FB

Bike Fest

Race report coming later this week.. + some more sponsorship news!! keep it locked and loaded!!

1,500 miles in a month...

The goal was simple, keep riding to a steady aerobic pace, minimized the time above threshold to give me an endurance base for the year , but at the same time smash 1500 miles in a month in less hours for about the same amount of climbing than enduro ace Mark Weir set at the start of his riding year. This just so happened to coincide with the Strava Month of May challenge, giving me more motivation to clock up the average 50 miles a day needed. With two days away (no bike) with the wife and off the bike one night to sort the final details with new sponsor @Rocky Mountain UK as a brand ambassador i would have to smash it out what ever the weather.. Well the hope was that the weather in May would be dry and sunny, what i got was a lot wet and windy rides after work. Still come the end of the month my goals had been smashed, faster time than Weir, 5+-7 goal.   5 % more power, loss of 7 pounds. But best of all i was not trashed, i did hope to get some speed work in before a big race but with Bike Fest at the start of June it was right in to racing joining buddy Stu for a 12 hours paired race. Month of May.. what a mind blender!

29ers have come of age, Wade Simmons tells you why!

Elbry joins the Rocky Mountain Bicycles team.

Im super stoked to say im now riding for Rocky Mountain Bicycles UK as a factory rider and ambassador for the brand, More details in my future blogs, Looking for service and sales for Rocky Mtn in the UK click and like the Face Book page HERE  .

Big news coming...

Ok we have some very cool news coming down the pike, we should be able to tell you the first one next week!! so stoked.. keep us locked and loaded for the latest as it goes down.

Blizzard update

Got to swing my leg over the blizzard for the first time and where better than on a exmoor shuttle day. check the gopro action  .
We have also made a return to haldon for some trail riding, first bit trail riding here in 7 months and we got some top 3 and KOM times on strava while we were at it!
Bike check coming on hardtail nation. better photos and more gopro edits coming soon.

LION HEART SPORTIVE

Long Leats cyclosportive has a rep as a hard event to start the year but this year took things to another level as we turned up to snow and sub zero temps. Down to do the 100 miles we were told that the ride would be cut to 65 miles and myself and riding buddy were a little gutted. But out on the hills we were glad for the shorter loop. Getting bumped by other riders as you passed them and riders all over the road it was clear that some riders had very little idea that people would be going past them, it made for some wild passing. We put in a solid ride and ran out of gas in the final mile of what was a hard event off the back of a solid ride the day before. More sportives to come later in the year.. If you think sportives are easy.. your wrong, it was harder than the three raod races we have done this year.

Blizzard LT

Bikes built and ready to go, will pick it up Thursday night and be shredding some of Exmoors finest trails on Friday. Good times, better pics etc to follow.
Thanks to sponsors: Marzocchi and Kore with the build.

Interview with Mark Weir

Mark Weir chat, well worth a watch!

WADE SIMMONS OFF MAXXIS

Long time Maxxis rider Wade Simmons looks like his joined old buddy Richie Schley over at Continental for 2013.

Rocky Mountain Blizzard.. Back to my roots

Above: The 1991 Blizzard was the first RM i ever spotted in the UK, It was my local shop owners bike and i loved its build detail and style , I also loved its colourway and wanted to get an RM Blizzard but sadly had only just got my new Browning Marin.

Above: The 92 Blizzard was another classic and kept me wanting a Rocky Mountain...

Above: The 93 Blizzard came out and i ordered the frame and fork, sadly the wishbone stays had gone and the colourway was not as cool as the two years before.. But i still loved that bike and ran it for many years from Tomac drop bars and Tioga back wheel to Club Roost Go Fast bars, A-tac stems and judy forks. I felt it was the best handling bike i had rode and loved its design details like a forward facing seat bolt etc..

This week i just ordered a brand new 2011 Rocky Mountain Blizzard LT frame! 2011 would be the last year of the Blizzard, Silver-Fish did not import the frame and a few calls and emails and i could not get them to get me one of the frames in at any cost back in 2011.. Lucky this brand new frame came up and i got the 15.5 frame i wanted. Look for a build pic in the coming weeks.